A Change of Heart
by LittleZbot
Summary: "Being a hero doesn't mean you're invincible. It just means that you're brave enough to stand up and do what's needed." An adopted version of the story by TheFrozenCrow.
1. Chapter 1

**I was planning on releasing this as a New Years sort of thing, but was delayed. Anyway, I'm LittleZbot, and I recently adopted a RWBY/Dragon Ball Z Crossover by TheFrozenCrow titled** _ **A Change of Heart? The Silver Saiyan has arrived on Remnant!**_ **The story had an interesting plotline and several ideas and openings for exploration, so I thought I might as well take the opportunity. A typical chapter consisted of 700 Words, with the first two chapters both being less than a single page long. As such, I'll be expanding on the story quite a bit. The chapters may be short, but remember what I'm working with. One chapter here = one chapter there. I've discussed this story with the original author and will continue to do so. There will be changes and deviations from what was originally written, but nothing so great as to entirely change the basic plot. If you want to read the original story, there is a link on my profile. Enjoy!**

…

Despite all appearances, the world of Remnant was not a particularly strange place. Sure, there were evil monsters made up of darkness that tried to kill you at every turn, entire cities often were reduced to rubble and never rebuilt, and there were a crapload of guns, but most other worlds with intelligent life were much the same. Sure, the basic appearances were different; the monsters might just be insane murderers, the cities might be preserved as historic artifacts, and the guns might not be built into other weapons, but the core of it all was still there. In fact, Ruby had quite decided that she'd rather live in Remnant than any other world in existence. Not that she'd had much experience with other worlds, unless you counted the school cafeteria, which some did, but she knew that Remnant was her home; it was where she belonged.

Besides, she'd much rather meet an Ursa than a human with the spirit of one. Humans could hide their true nature. Grimm couldn't.

One more similarity: meteor showers.

Now, Ruby didn't know if there were meteor showers on other worlds; heck, she didn't know if there were guns or even people on other worlds, but even if there were, she wouldn't trade Remnant's for them if they threw in all the gold in their world along with it. Possibly because she really could care less about gold (It's just a shiny heap of rocks. What's so special about it?), but more likely because she loved Remnant's meteor showers just that much. Tonight was the appearance of a meteor shower that only occurred once every seven years. It was probably the most beautiful meteor shower she'd ever seen, in part because she'd never seen one before.

It should be said that Remnant's meteor showers weren't nearly as impressive as they were made out to be. True, there were dozens of meteors flying through the sky, but they were all very small, hard to make out, and just appeared to be moving white dots. Ruby didn't care much about that, however, nor could she when she had no experience with meteor showers to begin with.

She sat at the window, gazing into the night sky with awe on her face. She'd seen falling stars before, certainly; but never so many of them one right after each other. The fact that it was her first made it that much harder to look away. She almost felt possessive about it, like the shower was hers and hers alone, and to look away would be betraying the hundreds of meteors that had flown all this way just for her. It helped that she was the only member of Team RWBY watching it; Blake and Weiss had expressed no interest, and Yang had fallen asleep more than an hour before the shower began.

The only other person in the room awake was Blake, who sat silently reading a book. Every twenty seconds there was the sound of a page turning, indicating the she was making progress, but there was no other sign of activity. Blake herself looked like she might fall asleep soon.

Without looking away, Ruby tried again to get Blake to share in the experience. "Blaaaake."

Silence.

"Come on, Blake, don't be such a party pooper! Everyone else is asleep and I'm soooooo lonely!"

"Why would you be lonely?" Blake asked indifferently, eyes still intent on her book. "You have those giant rocks to keep you company."

"But it's not the same!"

"Maybe you could name them. Would that help?"

Ruby clapped. "Yeah! That's a great idea! Okay, that one's Joe, that's Steve, and that looks like a Charles…" she was silent for a few seconds. "Blake, they keep leaving. I can't name them all if they won't even stick around to hear their names!"

"How rude." Blake muttered.

"I know, right? A real friend would never do that! Right, Blakey-Wakey…?"

"Ruby, if you don't want to watch the meteors, then go to bed. I'm not watching them with you. And never call me that."

Ruby snorted. "So much for being a real friend."

Blake pretended not to hear.

After nearly a full minute, Blake heard Ruby's voice again. She was muttering something, and a quick glance told Blake that she was dying to let it out. Blake glanced toward her and sighed. "What is it?"

Ruby let out a devilish grin. "Every party needs a pooper-"

"Ruby, shut up."

"Ugh, you're no fun. You won't even let me finish my song!" Ruby pouted.

"Because it's a dumb song that you should have grown out of a long time ago."

"But I didn't!" declared Ruby, obviously quite proud of the fact.

"No, you didn't," Blake agreed, and went back to her book.

Another minute of silence passed. "Blake?"

"What?"

"What time is it?"

Blake glanced at the clock next to her bunk bed. "Three."

"In the morning, or the afternoon?"

"Neither."

"What?" Ruby, possibly for the first time in hours, turned around, surprise etched into her face. "But it has to be one of them! Unless…" her eyes widened. "Do faunus have a different time…thinger or something?"

Blake sighed again. "I was joking, you idiot. Look outside and see for yourself."

Ruby turned around to face the meteors again. "Um, in in the morning?"

"Prob-"

Blake was cut off by a shout from Ruby. "Blake! The meteors are gone! I stayed up almost all night to watch them, and I didn't even see the end!"

"What a shame." Blake muttered, though a corner of her made found it interesting how the shower just happened to end during the ten seconds Ruby was looking away.

There was a groan from the bed opposite of Blake. "Please tell me I was woken up because of something important."

"Weiss!" Ruby cheered. "Finally, I have somebody to share in the tragedy with! Come here, bestie!"

"I swear, if somebody isn't dead, someone soon will be," Weiss growled.

Ruby backed off. "Okay, okay, I get it, you're not really a morning person. That's fine. That's toootally fine."

"Morning?" Weiss groaned. "It is _not_ morning already! It can't be!"

"Technically, it is," Blake commented, eyes back to her book.

Weiss grabbed the clock sitting next to Blake and breathed a sigh of relief. "It's only 3:13. I can sleep for at least three more hours." She lifted her head and glared at Blake. "How dare you lie to my face! I would've thought that you, of all people-"

"I didn't lie," Blake interrupted, calmly slipping a bookmark into the book and closing it. "It's 3:13 a.m., which is technically morning."

"You know that's not what I meant!"

"Oh?"

"Um, guys?" Ruby broke in. They paid no attention.

"It's morning when the sun comes up and there's light outside!"

"What if morning classes started at 6, and it was still dark out? Would it be morning?"

"Guys?"

"That's different!"

"Not really."

"GUYS!"

Yang snorted in her bed, almost waking up from the noise before exhaustion claimed her once again.

Weiss stood up and whirled around, facing Ruby. "WHAT?"

"Not to alarm you or anything, but there's another falling star."

Weiss stared at her. "That's it?"

"And it's getting close. Like, scary close."

Weiss sighed. "Ruby, falling stars are literally meteorites _burning up_ in our atmosphere. In order to get through and actually land, it would have to be huge! Close to the size of-"

The ground suddenly shook violently, knocking the girls off their feet. Blake's bookcase fell to the ground, and Yang dropped off the top bunk and hit the floor with a thud. On the bright side, she was finally up, jumping from the ground and activating the Ember Celica out of habit.

Then, as suddenly as they began, they stopped.

"Well, to be fair," Ruby announced. "it was pretty big."

Yang blinked, getting the feeling she'd missed out on something. "Um, what was?"

"The meteor that just crash-landed here," Ruby announced cheerfully.

Weiss turned on her. "Ruby! You didn't tell us that when you said it was close, you meant _right above the building_!"

Blake got off her bed and slowly walked toward the window.

"I told you it was close! I even said scarily close!"

"Yeah, well, this is more than scarily close. This is _terrifyingly in-your-face close_!"

"Guys?" Blake interrupted. "Was this there before?"

The girls crowded around the window, Yang still incredibly confused. All inhaled at the same time.

Not so far away, there was a trail of incinerated grass, and dozens of trees leading into Emerald Forest were snapped in half, broken trunks sticking out of the ground like misplaced toothpicks.

"So…" Ruby ventured, "who wants to check it out?"

There was a slight silence while everybody contemplated this question. Weiss was the first to break it.

"I'm sorry, Ruby, but…I just realized that I have a very important place to be right now." Weiss promptly turn around and crawled back into bed.

"That's your bed," Ruby pointed out helpfully.

"And your point is?"

"Come on! This is a mystery! And this mystery is gonna be a whoel lot more interesting than just sleeping the day away!"

"How can you even call this day? It three in the morning!"

"3:16."

"Oh, yes. Those sixteen minutes make _all the difference_." Weiss snorted. "If you want to check it out, Ruby, you'll have to do so without _me_."

"Aw, but that's no fun!"

"Ruby," Yang sighed. "I don't know what that was, but I don't think any of us really want to go find out. Let's let one of the actual huntresses or hunters deal with it, maybe?"

"I'll go," announced Blake, surprising everybody.

While Ruby let out a shout of glee, Yang turned around, facing her with a raised eyebrow. "You will?"

"Why not? She's not going to shut up until she finds it, and at night Emerald Forest can be riddled with monsters. I don't like the idea of leaving my bed and book to inspect a fallen meteor for no reason, but I like it more than the idea of Ruby going out alone and getting caught off-guard by a Beowulf."

Yang shrugged. "Well, good enough for me. I'll go with you."

"You were…strangely easy to convince." Blake noted.

Yang didn't reply, but she did let out a grin.

"Yay! Now almost everybody's coming!" Ruby shouted. "What about you, Weiss?"

Weiss turned from face to face, looking shocked. "Are you all insane? Going out into Emerald forest in the middle of the night to simply investigate a meteor that you have no idea where is?"

"Yep!" Ruby confirmed happily.

"Well, I…but…I have to…" Weiss turned around, looking for a face that showed some support. She didn't want to leave, but she certainly didn't want to be left alone. Finally, with a groan, she caved in. "Fine. I'll go with you. But only if you promise to only be half an hour. I'll need my sleep for tomorrow."

"I never doubted you for a second, bestie!" Ruby proclaimed.

"Don't push it. Half an hour, understood?"

"Of course!"

…

Two hours later, the entirety of Team RWBY was still looking for the meteor.

"Half an hour, half an hour I said…" Weiss muttered. She looked up to the sky. "And wouldn't you know it, the dawn's coming up! Isn't that _wonderful_?"

Ruby didn't seem to catch the sarcasm. "Ooh! It is? Can I see! I can't see over the treetops! Somebody, lift me up!"

"Relax, Weiss," Yang said, "We'll find it soon enough."

"At this rate, we'll be late for class. Late for class because of a stupid meteor that couldn't have bothered to be in the half of the forest we've already searched!"

Blake suddenly paused. "I hear something."

"It's Emerald Forest," Weiss retorted. "There are thousands of things for you to hear."

Blake didn't reply. She slowly continued walking, acting cautiously.

"Come on, guys! I really wanna see the sunrise!" Ruby moaned.

"Honestly, Ruby," replied Weiss, defiantly tramping past her. "I don't know why you even-"

She was cut off by her own scream as she fell into a fifty-foot crater.

Ruby raced up. "Weiss, you found it!" she cheered.

"I noticed."

Blake arrived beside Ruby and gazed down into the crater. "Um, guys, I don't know much about meteors, but I'm pretty sure they don't look like that."

The "meteor" was perfectly round, little bigger than a human, and covered in polished, gleaming metal with a single, see-through, circular window.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Ruby squealed with delight. "We found an alien spaceship!"

Weiss had finally noticed the large object she was next to and stood speechless. It wasn't long, though, before she recovered. "Well, can we un-find it? I don't want to be here when slimy, green, repulsive aliens begin to-"

She found herself interrupted by her own scream for the second time in two minutes as part of the spaceship began to lift up, revealing a door. She, along with the rest of Team RWBY, stared into the blackness inside the ship until a figure emerged.

Yang was the first to speak. "What…is that?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, It's been a while. I've really been focusing on certain aspects of another story, plus this book I've been working on, but I will still update this. Probably way more often than I just did. How's about once a month? Too big a time gap? Eh, I'll figure something out. Anyway, if you read the original story, you'll noticed I changed Alistor's personality quite a bit. I wrote and rewrote this chapter a couple of times and never really liked it. I finally figured out what the problem was: Alistor's stoic, then suddenly emotional, then stoic personality really wasn't working out. Because of my writing style, it made him a boring character who I fell asleep writing about. So I altered his personality. I hope you don't mind. For the record, his power level has also decreased to about 1,200, compared to the 4,000 he had in the original. The power gap between him and the rest of the world was ridiculous, and basically removed any possible opposition or fight the other characters could take part in.**

…

Alistor blinked, his eyes adjusting to the brightness. After about five seconds, they seemed to have adjusted, but there was no way this planet was that dark. He'd been aiming for Sensix, a planet with three suns. If that's where he landed, as he was fairly certain it was, he should be nearly blinded from the light. It was probably nighttime, though, on a planet with three suns, even that shouldn't have made much of a difference. He looked up into the sky and paused, biting his cheek. The moon. Unless Frieza had gotten a little trigger-happy recently, he wasn't on Sensix, because Sensix most certainly did not have a half-shattered moon.

This place was cold, which reminded him of…well, he wasn't quite sure, actually. He felt like it reminded him of something bigger that had happened before, something that was certainly worth remembering, but couldn't quite place it. All he knew was that he didn't like the cold. He could take it in stride, certainly, but there was something about it, that thing that he couldn't place, that made him not like it. More than not like it; he straight-out hated it, and he had no idea why. Suddenly, he found this one detail so troublesome and bothering that, for a single moment, it outweighed everything else.

Then he heard somebody say "What…is that?" and it all came crashing back down on him. His planet was destroyed, there was a bounty on his head, and the most powerful being in the galaxy was hunting him down. To top it all off, after months of hibernation, having carefully set coordinates to the one place Frieza would never think to look for him, something had gone wrong, and not only was he on a planet very much lacking in suns, and half a moon, but was also apparently inhabited. How had he messed this up so badly?

He could set his ship to take off toward Sensix again. Fly away, never look back. That wouldn't be much of a problem, except that now people had seen it. If they were good little subjects to Lord Frieza, then they'd report it first thing. He couldn't have that. He'd just go up there and kill whoever it was that had seen him and then take off. No big deal.

He stepped outside of the ship.

The chilliness was worse than he'd expected. He'd felt the cold from inside, but outside, it was on a completely different level. He actually shivered once. He looked up to the edge of the crater the ship had made when it landed, and immediately spotted three girls standing there, looking down at him.

Oddly, each one seemed as though they were trying to represent some kind of color. The one to the far right had thick yellow hair that went down to her knees. He wasn't talking blonde hair, he really meant straight-out yellow, though, he supposed it could be considered blonde in some lighting. The rest of her outfit seemed to coordinate with this, with mixtures of yellow and, primarily, brown, which really only served to accent her hair. The one on the far left had jet-black hair and a bow on her head, with an outfit that consisted of patterns of black and white. She carried herself differently form the other two, acting coolly and calmly, though her face did give away some surprise. Then there was the one in the middle. She appeared younger than both of the others, with short, wine-colored hair and wearing what appeared to be a large, straight combat skirt, supported in the air by no known means. Of the three, he was most intrigued by her, not because of her age or color or skirt, but because she actually seemed excited to see him. Hopping up and down in the air, eyes shining, and giant smiles given, it felt like she thought she was reuniting with an old friend.

"It's a faunus." This came from the black-haired one with the bow, the surprise evident in her voice. Faunus, he decided, must be what these people called saiyans.

"No, it's an alien," the blonde corrected her, seemingly bewildered herself.

"An alien faunus!" cried the one in the center, as excited as ever.

Alistor decide that he'd had about enough of this conversation, despite only four lines having been spoken, none of them his. He raised his hand and a large ball of Ki formed over it. He let it grow bigger and bigger over the course of a few seconds.

"Guys," the yellow one shouted, "I don't like where this is going."

The one in the middle stopped jumping, expression turned from excitement to fear. "Uh, please, Mr. Alien Faunus Sir, can you not do that hand thing?"

"What if I like doing the hand thing?" he called out.

Each of the three girls flinched. It was obvious they hadn't expected him to speak, much less in their tongue. It shouldn't have been such a big deal. Most saiyans knew the common language.

The one in the middle recovered first. She was determined, that one. "Will the hand thing kill us?" she called back.

"Probably," he affirmed.

"Then maybe you could not do the hand thing because we don't like it."

Alistor shrugged. "Tough luck."

Then he was unexpectedly hit with a sudden blow to the side. With a cry of surprise, he fell backwards. The Ki ball instantly retreated into his hand, signifying that it was ready to use at a moment's notice by forming a blue glow around it.

"Excuse me," came a new voice. "That was very rude."

Alistor sat up and glared in the general direction of the voice. "You aren't exactly kindness itself, either," he mumbled, then, as he caught sight of the figure before him, added "Ice Queen."

He couldn't exactly help it. Unlike the others who had some other color mixed in with their outfits to set themselves apart, this one completely wore white. White skin, white dress, white hair, white weapon. She was white personified.

A look of sudden rage crossed her face. "Why does everyone call me that?!" She shouted. "I don't _look_ like an ice sculpture-"

"Um, actually-" Alistor started.

She pointed her…wand? Was it a wand? He decided he would call it a wand. Anyway, she pointe dit at him and shouted "You don't get to talk. I'm in the middle of a conversation."

"With who?" Alistor was genuinely bewildered.

"With myself! And I'd very much appreciate if you didn't interrupt! I don't look like an ice sculpture, and it's not my fault I'm practically royalty! Honestly, if you-"

"Okay, I'm done with this." Alistor fired the blast, full force, at the girl in white.

The girl instantly pointed her weapon again, and, to his surprise, a large circle with several symbols appeared in front of her. The blast hit the circle and exploded, blasting away huge sections of the ground and surrounding rocks. When the smoke cleared, however, the girl appeared completely unharmed. The circle had somehow blocked the blast.

"Okay, now you've surpassed rudeness," she declared. "That was just mean."

Alistor decided to amend his earlier statement. This girl wasn't white, personified. She was more like the evil spirit of winter personified.

She raised her wand, but before she could do anything, there was a huge crash behind him, and sudden, unbelievable pain and incredible weakness. Alistor fell to his knees, shocked.

"Yang! You missed! You only got his tail!" he heard the red girl cry out.

"Oops. Sorry." This was the yellow-haired girl's voice, apparently named "Yang." Alistor paid very little attention to that detail, however, as there happened to be something much more pressing on his mind. Literally.

"Yang!" the white girl called out, voice sounding both shocked and angry. "What were you doing?"

"Hey, don't look at me!" Yang shouted back. "It was all Ruby's idea!"

"I figured that he might hurt you. Or us. Or both," Ruby, apparently the name of the girl with wine-colored hair, explained, "So I asked Yang to throw a boulder at him!"

"And you really thought it would work?" Significant amounts of disbelief there.

"Well, why not?"

"Ruby, I don't think that would work on _me_!" the white girl shouted. Now all you've done is make this weird, evil alien angry.

"Um, actually-" Alistor tried to say.

"It's okay, Weiss!" Ruby shouted. "We'll nail him this time! Yang, another boulder!"

"Aw, come on," he mumbled.

There was sudden silence. Such silence, in fact, that for a split second, Alistor thought that the boulder had been thrown, and he was dead. All because of a stupid tail.

Then there was a demonic roar, a shout of "Grimm!" from the black girl, the only one he did not yet know the name of, and the sounds of trees crashing and shotguns being fired.

He groaned. "This day is just not working out."

Three seconds later, he found himself face-to-face with what he could only describe as what the result would be if a theater mask and a bear had a baby. Huge, imposing, and very much a threat now that he was as weak as a kitten, it roared, sending the foul smell of its breath right into his nose. It smelled like death.

Well, that settled it. He was most definitely _not_ on Sensix.

The large creature swiped its huge claws at his bare back, as if testing him to make sure he was possible to eat. Normally, he wouldn't be, but he right now he certainly was, and the claws cut through his back like razors. He stifled a cry. They dug deeper, breaking bone, and then he actually did cry out.

Satisfied, the bear-skull-thing leaned back, ready to pounce and tear off half of his body. He cringed.

Then the girl is white, Weiss, he believed, suddenly appeared in front of him and threw up a circle. The creature's head smashed into the circle and bounced off, levaing the creature stunned. Immediately, Weiss launched herself at the creature, creating circles underneath her feet to jump off of, and thrust her wand through the demon bear's skull, causing it to fall to the ground, dead.

Weiss jumped back down in front of him and scoffed. "Let me guess: there aren't any Ursa where you're from."

"Would you be surprised if I said you were right?"

"Not really. It's obvious from the way you reacted." A giant bird suddenly swooped in behind her, soundlessly.

"Uh, Weiss, is it?"

She smiled and leaned back slightly. "So, even faunus from other planets have heard of the Schnees. I can't say I'm surprised about that, either."

She talked as if there were saiyans living on this planet. Alistor put that to one side and just blurted it out. "There's another one right-"

The cheering girl in red, Ruby, suddenly sailed through the air, carrying a giant scythe, propelled by what appeared to be shotgun blasts coming from the scythe. Alistor had never heard of such a weapon, but it seemed to him not only creative, but also effective. As she fell toward the bird, she sliced a half a dozen times around the bird. Oddly, though it appeared uninjured, the bird fell to the ground, seemingly dead.

"So much for that," Alistor muttered. Secretly, he was very impressed with these children's natural fighting ability. They seemed to treat fighting as a form of art, naturally gliding from one place to another and taking care of these monsters.

"Honestly, if you weren't prepared for the Grimm, why even come here?" Weiss scolded. "Something tells me we would be just fine without you."

"Weiss!" Yang called out. "Could really use your help, here!"

"This is what we get for going into Emerald Forest at night!" Weiss shouted, then left to help.

"You know, if somebody could just get this boulder off of my tail, I could help!" he shouted. His cries were ignored by the girls, but did happen to be heard by several hulking monstrosities with long arms and spikes. They were like the bear creature, only thinner, and, from appearances, much faster.

"Uh, guys! I know I kind of tried to kill you earlier, but I always said not to live in the past! Think you could help me out here? Or, better yet, LIFT THIS GIANT BOULDER OFF OF MY TAIL?"

Plenty of shotgun blasts and moaning cries of evil creatures, but nobody came to help him. Actually, with all the fighting they were doing, he doubted they even heard him.

Then, just before the monsters were within reaching distance, the boulder was suddenly lifted. Feeling the pressure on his tail vanish, and his strength return, he immediately flew into the air. Judging on what he'd seen of the girls so far, he judged a proper power level and released a giant blast accordingly. The blast incinerated every Grimm he could see while leaving the girls unharmed. When the smoke cleared, all he saw were four openmouthed girls scattered about the battlefield - and two new arrivals. A blonde lady with glasses and a man with a cane and gray hair, both looking at the entire situation with the calmest, most neutral of expressions.

"Professor Ozpin!" Ruby cheered. "We found an alien!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Oh my gosh, I am so late. I'm sure everyone thought I had taken four vacations to Hawaii, fallen into a volcano, lived on a volcanic island for years on end, was recently rescued, got out of the hospital, and wrote this chapter because THAT'S HOW LATE I AM.**

 **In all seriousness, though, I didn't expect this chapter to be done this early. It's not a particularly entertaining chapter, but it is rather necessary. Also, I forgot to mention how Volume 3 ended a while back, so I can confirm that this is a slightly AU story taking place in between Volumes 2 and 3, though I suspect the original was supposed to take place shortly after Volume 1. But I want Neo to be in this story, so take that, TheFrozenCrow!**

 **I'm sorry. Please don't kill me.**

 **In other news, in case you were wondering, this story will have several OCs in it, with almost no canonical DBZ characters, for a couple of reasons. 1. DBZ characters are entertaining to watch, but boring to write. 2. Anybody in DBZ is so much more powerful than anybody in this story that it is, frankly, absurd. 3. If I dare make an enemy that can even feasibly stand against anybody from DBZ, the community will eat me alive.**

 **One more thing. I recently realized that, to enter Beacon, Alistor would need a team of four. Obviously, a certain character in the original story will be part of his team, but until I reach that point, I guess I'm accepting OCs with names that start with A and T, because the only real team name that starts with A and has a K that I can think of is ATAK. I might take the ideas, I might write my own characters, but this is a chance to get somebody you made up featured in this story! How cool is that?**

 **Woah, that intro is obscenely long. I'm sorry!**

…

"I see that," Ozpin answered, his tone mildly impressed.

Alistor's eyes darted from the girls to the professor. For the first time, he became aware of the energy he sensed from these people he had met. It had always been there, but he'd been to concerned with other things to really bother noticing. The girls were each formidable, for their age, with maybe less than a fifteenth of his power. However, he recognized, most of their power didn't come from their natural abilities, but rather their skill and proficiency with the weapons that they used, which wasn't registered on his energy sensing, and made quite a difference. Most saiyans fought bare-handed, as a testament to their power and pride, or simply due to the fact that that was just how it was done. A saiyan's body could get stronger and stronger; a saiyan's weapon couldn't.

Still, at least the four girls were recognizable. It were the two adults that shocked him. The woman with glasses was almost as powerful as he was. He could feel her spirit emanating from her body, not used through Ki but still there, all the same. The gray-haired man, Ozpin, was the strangest to him, for one simple reason.

He couldn't sense his energy.

He'd always been able to sense levels of energy coming off of different beings. Most warriors in Frieza's army were slightly stronger than he was, his father and brother had both been twice as strong, and Frieza himself was so powerful that, even in his lowest form, he was off the charts.

But this one man, this Professor Ozpin, he had no idea how powerful was. Maybe he was a weak, frail old man who had learned to hide his energy, or maybe he was a match for even Frieza who had learned to hide his energy. For all he knew, he could be a god in disguise.

He'd always lived in a place where mysteriousness, technique, and weapons were almost useless. What mattered was having pride and having the power to back it up. However, he was now on a planet where skill appeared to be twice as important as any other physical attribute. This would make it very hard for him to judge foes in the future, assuming he was stuck on this planet.

Which he wasn't, he quickly reminded himself. He glanced down to where his ship was…laying…

His ship was gone.

"Where's my ship?" he whispered.

"Um, what?" Ruby questioned.

"WHERE'S MY SHIP?" This time he bellowed, making sure everyone in the immediate vicinity could hear him.

"Oh, that circle thing you came here in? I used it to squash a Deathcrawler," Yang proudly declared.

Alistor spun around, his eyes searching, until finally he found it. Or, rather, what was left of it. It was smashed into a hundred pieces, each of which was scattered among the ground, and, undoubtedly, what would have been the remains of this…Deathcrawler if he hadn't incinerated everything in a hundred-foot radius.

"You ruined my ship!" he cried out.

"You tried to kill us," Yang pointed out.

Alistor decided that she didn't understand the gravity of the situation. "YOU RUINED MY SHIP!"

"And you tried to kill us."

"I try to kill everybody! You don't just go and ruin a guy's ship for stuff like that! How would you like it if I ruined your ship, huh?"

Yang blinked. "I don't have a ship."

"Well, obviously, or else you wouldn't have treated mine so badly!"

"Excuse me, sir," Ozpin declared, interrupting their argument. "Could you please come down here for a moment?"

Alistor gave Yang a venomous glare to let her know that they would continue this conversation later. Then he replied to Ozpin. "If you don't mind, I think I'll stay up here a while."

"I'd far prefer to have a face-to-face conversation."

"I can see you, you can see me, I can hear you, you can hear me. What else do you want?"

"I'm not concerned about _you_ hearing what I have to say." Ozpin gestured to the girls around him.

After a moment, he thought he understood. This planet was filled with these monsters, these…Grimm, was it? Hadn't the Ice Queen called them Grimm? These Grimm, and as such, each child had to learn how to fight said monsters at a young age. They were handed off to any one of multiple professors, who would teach them how to do so. These girls were all under the tutelage of this "Ozpin" and the woman, presumably his wife, and had wandered out to get a look at his spaceship. They had been noticed missing and their tutor and his wife had come after them. They had yet to learn about the overlord Frieza, or, perhaps, certain other thing the men knew, and so this professor wished to discuss such matters with him in private.

For an alien who had never been to or even heard of Remnant, it was a pretty good guess, though Glynda would have killed him if she heard it.

"Sir," Ozpin called, "If you won't come down, I'll come up, and that would be rather hard on these old bones."

Alistor swallowed, then lowered himself to the ground. He walked up to Ozpin, who held his ground admirably.

"You have met Team RWBY, I assume?" Ozpin questioned.

Thinking RWBY as the name of Ruby, and this being her team, Alistor hesitated, and then replied "More or less."

Ruby was suddenly in front of him. She was almost absurdly fast, to the point where he instantly made the assumption that her speed made up the bulk of her power level. "Oh! Let me introduce you! Can I introduce him, sir? Can I, pleeeaase?"

Ozpin smiled knowingly. It seemed to Alistor that this man never showed any emotion the traditional way. He had to either smile knowingly or ask curiously or smirk well-meaningly. "I don't see why not." 

"Oh! I'm Ruby! Hi, sir!" she grabbed his hand and shook it wildly. "Thanks for not blowing us up earlier. Though I guess you did try to. Oh, that's Yang! She's my sister." She whispered that last part. "That's Blake, and then there's Weiss, my best-"

"No." Weiss declared.

"And that's it! Hey, while you get your ship fixed, can you stay with us?" Ruby asked excitedly, the idea suddenly having sprung upon her mind and shone out of her gleaming silver eyes.

"Um, Ruby," Blake started.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Yang continued.

"If you think I'd ever share a room with that, that…" Weiss added. "That disgusting alien faunus-"

"Sure," Alistor replied. After all, he reasoned, why not? He would need somewhere to stay, and it was a way to tick the yellow-haired one off, which, now that she had ruined his ship, he had decided to make his life's goal.

"Yay!" Ruby cheered. "Oh! Professor Ozpin, can he stay with us?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "We'll talk about that, Miss Rose. This man and I have some things to discuss. In the meantime, you were reported missing for class. Allow Glynda to take you out of the forest. And don't tell anybody about what you found."

Five minutes later, everyone had cleared out except Ozpin and Alistor.

"Her name is _Ruby Rose_?" Alistor asked, eyebrow raised. "I'm glad my parents weren't that mean. Though I suppose my father might have done that if he had thought of it."

"It's a part of our tradition," Ozpin answered simply. "Now, Mr…" He looked at Alistor expectantly.

"Alistor," he replied. "Unlike your culture, ours rarely gives last names."

Ozpin nodded. "I understand. Still, if you are to stay here, even temporarily, you shall abide by the rules of our culture. I suggest you find a last name very soon."

"I could just destroy the planet," Alistor suggested.

"I don't believe that would be the best option for you," Ozpin declared. "After all, you can't breathe in space, can you?"

Alistor nodded. "So, you know a little more about our species than I presumed."

"It doesn't take much knowledge of a species," Ozpin replied, "when they can fly and yet choose to take spaceships to other planets."

"I'll give you that one," Alistor acknowledged. "Fine. Silver, then. Alistor Silver."

"A very fitting choice, given the shade of your hair."

"Yes, thank you for that. I really needed to know the origin of the last name that I made up. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Ozpin turned around and started walking. "Follow me, Mr. Silver. And if you happen to spot any Grimm on the way, kindly take care of them."

…

Once they were seated in Ozpin's office, and Alistor was done admiring the clockwork mechanisms under the floor, Ozpin poured himself a cup of hot chocolate and began.

"Now, Mr. Silver, would you mind telling me why you are here?"

Alistor explained it to him as well as he could, which wasn't very well. It basically boiled down to "My family is dead, a guy blew up my planet, I tried to escape, was caught, escaped again, headed toward an abandoned planet, went into hyper sleep, and woke up here."

Ozpin nodded, taking a sip of his hot chocolate. He didn't say anything along the lines of "That's a remarkable story," or "Wow, that's cool," or really anything else that showed any investment. It seemed as though he had heard a hundred like it. When he finally spoke, Alistor somehow expected some kind of sage wisdom to come out of his mouth.

Instead, he said "Do you enjoy hot chocolate on your planet, Mr. Silver?"

Alistor blinked. "I…don't believe so."

"I tell you, it's perfectly miraculous how many things a cup of hot chocolate can cure." Ozpin rose from his seat, brought out another mug, and proceeded to make him a cup while Alistor watched in surprise.

"There you are." Ozpin sat back. "So, Mr. Silver, what are your plans now?"

Alistor bit his lip. "I suppose I'll have to fix my ship and get out of here. I'm going to assume that there's no Spaceships R Us on this planet?"

"I'm afraid the majority of this planet has no idea your species exists." Ozpin answered mildly.

Alistor was surprised. "What? But doesn't faunus mean-"

"Faunus are very different from saiyans, Mr. Silver. Though, thanks to your tail, you'll be able to pass for one quite easily."

"So Frieza doesn't even know this planet exists?" Alistor was unable to believe his luck.

"Not necessarily. He just hasn't taken it over. However, that's a story for another time. We still haven't decided what to do with you here."

Alistor nodded. "What do you do here? Are you in charge of training those girls I met?"

"In a way," Ozpin replied. "I'm the headmaster of Beacon Academy, where many young men and women study the art of history, science, and, more importantly, fighting, in hopes of becoming hunters and huntresses to protect the common folk from the Grimm. Are you familiar with these terms?"

"Most of them. My race did get around a lot, you know."

"Only you killed whoever you got around to," Ozpin reminded him with a bemused smile. "Try the hot chocolate. It's very good."

Alistor did so, and was surprised to find that it was, just as he had said, very good. It had an excellent flavor, with an ever-so-slight bitterness, like coffee, but much sweeter and richer. As he set his glass down, he suddenly struck upon an idea. "I could enroll here."

"The thought had crossed my mind," Ozpin revealed. "In fact, the timing is impeccable. A certain academy has recently burned to the ground, and many of its students have gone to other academies to finish their training. We could easily claim you as one of them. However, that may entail certain regulations that you may not be ready, or able, to accept."

"Like my hair?" Alistor asked sheepishly.

"Odd-colored hair is nothing new," objected Ozpin. "We have everything from pink hair to bright blue hair. Your silver hair may have made you a reject on your planet, but nobody will give it a second look on this one. No, I'm referring to the use of Aura, among other things."

"Aura?"

"Consider it a physical manifestation of the soul," Ozpin explained. "A simple force that can be manipulated through training. It protects your physical body, heals wounds, and can be altered into more…interesting uses."

"So…Ki?"

"No, it's quite different," Ozpin told him. "Chi is a manifestation of the spirit and life energy. Courage, vigor, willpower, and other such things. It's physical, used for attack and defense and little else. Aura is a direct manifestation of the soul, and works through metaphysical means. It doesn't manifest itself into physical tools, but rather slightly alters the driving forces of the universe. Increased speed, electricity manipulation, even false copies of your being. That is what aura does."

"So, the circle thing that Weiss made was…?"

"Ah, yes. Glyphs are an inherent family semblance."

"Semblance?"

"Everyone can use aura in some way, Mr. Silver. The simple, skin-tight shield is certainly the most common. However, everybody who can use aura has a different semblance. A semblance is acquired, or, in most cases, unlocked, due to hard work, perseverance, and mainly luck. It's an exclusive part of aura manipulation only you can use, with the exception for family semblances."

"And your point is?"

"If you decide to enroll at this academy," Ozpin announced, "aside from obeying the academy rules, which, by the way, includes no killing, you have to meet four requirements. You have to pass a certain regulation test of your abilities. I'm sure you will manage that without a problem. The second may be a bit more difficult. It is that you must have a weapon of your choosing that you are trained to use. Third, you must assemble a team of four to use during your time here. Finally, the fourth applies exclusively to you."

"And what is it?"

"You must abandon all uses of your Chi except for one, which you shall claim as your semblance, and you shall cut your power in tenth while you study. Unless, of course, you want to reveal you heritage to the entire world."

This third requirement was, by far, the worst. Instantly Alistor rethought this idea. "Maybe I should just repair my ship and leave. I'm not sure I can live without using Ki."

Ozpin nodded. "I will require your answer by tomorrow, Mr. Silver. We can't delay things much longer. You are free to stay with Team RWBY tonight. If you do decide to enroll, however, you will need a weapon by your first day, and a team at the end of your first week."

"Understood." Alistor rose to leave, then hesitated. "May I take the hot chocolate?"

"Of course, Mr. Silver." Ozpin's face showed complete seriousness, but Alistor felt he was cracking a smile inside. "After all, it is yours."


	4. Chapter 4

**I iz backz**

…

"Nope, Jaune! You can't come in!" Ruby shouted, pushing against the door with all her little might, eyes bulging.

It was mid-afternoon, shortly after classes had wrapped up, and Team RWBYNIATRCA (RWBY Now Including Alistor The Really Cool Alien) were inside their dorm room, while Jaune was evidently trying to get back something that Ruby had borrowed. With his foot in the door, none of Ruby's non-existent might could seem to close it.

"But you said-" Team JNPR's leader began, clearly confused.

"You know when you say something you meant to say without meaning to say it or actually saying it but say it thinking it won't be said otherwise but it turns out that saying it actually means it wasn't said but said something else about you saying it and not meaning what you said? It's just like that!"

Jaune paused. "Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"That made absolutely no sense."

"So you got it?" Ruby did her best to appear gleeful. She actually had no idea what she had said, but she'd be grateful for any excuse to get rid of Jaune at this moment. "Good! Bye!"

"Hey-"

Ruby slammed the door, finally closing it. Ignoring the shouts of "My foot!" and "I think I'm dying!" from the hallway, she proceeded to whisper "It's okay!" so loud it might as well have been a shout.

"Ruby, is there any actual reason we should hide him?" Weiss attempted to reason with her, "Ozpin said he could stay."

"But he's an _alien_!" Ruby drew out the last word.

"An alien who's either going to be leaving tomorrow or joining this school," Alistor reminded her. He fidgeted.

"Hold still," Blake ordered. She was bandaging the cuts the Ursa had made on his back. His Ki was inhibiting the pain for now, or at least that's what he said, but that didn't mean it would do so for forever, or that the wounds wouldn't affect his body. He had retrieved his outer armor from his ship's remains shortly before, and it was now lying next to him on the floor. As Blake and Yang were the only members of Team RWBY with any first-aid experience, and he still hated Yang, Blake was the one fixing up the slashes - as best as she could, anyway. "It's down to your bone. If you move, it could ruin your back forever."

He waved off her warning. "Either way, seeing me wouldn't have been a big deal. Besides, there's no way he could have found out I was a saya- alien." 

Ruby snorted, trying to hold back laughter. "Have you looked in a mirror?"

Alistor raised his arms and investigated his body and clothes. He appeared to see nothing unusual. However, Ruby and, as far as she could tell, everyone else clearly did.

"Let's see," Yang declared, "Scarred face, yellow eyes, black jumpsuit with lots of cuts, and the weirdest body armor ever. Not to mention that blazing silver hair that sticks straight up in all directions. Yup, no way at all. I'm sure all that is perfectly normal."

"And what, exactly," Blake had a dangerous tone to her voice, "is wrong with yellow eyes?"

Yang shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, with you, they're fine. They're more of a golden, anyway. But on him? You have to admit, it'd stand out in a crowd, especially with that smell." 

"I smell all right," Alistor objected.

Yang nodded sagely "You smell, all right."

Ruby giggled. Blake rolled her eyes. Weiss looked from Yang to Alistor, trying to figure out what the joke was.

"Besides," Yang continued, "There's your hair."

Alistor clenched his fist. "There's nothing wrong with my hair."

"Nothing except that silver hair and yellow eyes do not go well together, something you've shown very clearly." Yang seemed oblivious to any danger she was in, regarding Alistor casually and speaking with a bubbly, happy tone.

Ruby saw Alistor's fist begin to shake. Obviously, his hair was a very sensitive subject. "Uh, Yang?"

"So silver hair and yellow eyes don't go together," Alistor spoke quietly, "but purple eyes and yellow hair do?"

"Uh, yellow and purple have gone together perfectly since the dawn of time," Yang said scornfully.

Alistor stood up, much to Blake's dismay. "Then maybe it's time they didn't." There was a clear threat in his voice. "I could rip out some of that hair for you."

Yang took two steps forward. Her voice dropped to match the level of threat he had just established. "Don't. Touch. The. Hair."

"Yang." Weiss spoke up.

They both ignored her. "Maybe I won't have to," Alistor stepped closer, smiling wickedly. "I could just rip that pretty head off your shoulders."

"You really think I'm pretty?" Yang smiled a deadly smile. She took the last step. They were now inches away from each other and, as far as Ruby could see, from fighting. "I didn't know you felt that way, _Ali_."

Alistor laughed derisively. "I don't remember giving you my name."

"To be a huntress takes more than strength. One must…take advantage of any opportunities available."

Alistor's eyes flashed. It was clear something had just crossed his mind, but Ruby, of course, had no idea what it was. He flexed his hand.

"Yang!" Blake stood up. "That's enough. I don't care what you're angry about. This…person is our guest. If you want to kill him, do it outside. When he's here, you'll treat him properly." 

"I don't need-" Yang began.

"She's right, Yang," Ruby declared.

"Sis, stay out of this."

"No," Ruby stepped forward. "I'm the leader of this team, even if I don't act like it much," she admitted sheepishly. "And you need to stop. Now."

"Not necessary," Alistor growled. He pointed a finger toward the open window and sent a finger-sized blast of Ki straight out, reducing a tree to a pile of ash in less than a second. "That's me holding back. Way back. Don't forget." He turned around and stormed away.

Weiss blocked his path to the hallway. "And where are you going?"

"I'm going to repair my ship. Despite the best efforts of that talking haystack, I'm leaving this place. Don't try to stop me." He charged past her.

Blake glared at Yang and ran after him.

"Ali, listen," she shouted.

"It's Alistor," he called back, turning his head slightly so his voice would be heard. "And I said not to try to stop me."

When he turned his head back, he found, to his surprise, Blake was right in front of him.

"I won't stop you," she assured him. "I won't even try. I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry about Yang. She's a little…headstrong."

"Is 'headstrong' the word for snarky, overconfident, and miserably torturous to talk to on this planet?"

"Alistor," she held up her hand, "You can't honestly say you've never met anyone else like that. You'll get used to her. We all did."

"Ah, yes, I can really see how our situations relate so very well. I'm an alien, you're not, I'm stranded here, you're not, I'm a wanted criminal, you're not, I'm leaving as soon as possible, and you're not. Thank you for clarifying just how alike we are!"

Blake sighed. "Just…don't strain your back. You don't want to suddenly become crippled." She turned around. "You're not the only one stuck in a place that won't accept you the way you are, you know." She quietly strolled down the hall again.

Alistor paused, taking that in for a moment. For the shortest period of time imaginable, he considered forgiving Yang for destroying his ship. Then his saiyan pride kicked in and he shuddered at the very idea of doing so. He kept going without a second thought.

…

Grabbing two enormous pieces of metal that looked like they might go together, Alistor laid them both on the ground. Using his Ki to coat his finger in a white-hot fire, he attempted to fuse the two pieces together. The effect was less than desirable, and it took him until two trees had collapsed to realize half the forest was on fire. Half-growling with anger, half- groaning with dismay, he sent enormous gusts of air throughout the forest, putting the fires out. 

He looked down at the wreckage. This was useless. He'd been out here a full hour, and every passing minute made it look more and more unlikely that this pile of scraps would become a ship again. He'd even found a hole where something venomous had punctured the hull, leaving acid eating away at several key components.

"Okay," he breathed in and out, trying to remain rational. "Navigation is out, Hypersleep is out, Life Support is out. Propulsion is mostly obliterated. How can I fix this? Answer: I can't. Except that I can. Except that I can't. Ugh, why does thinking have to be so hard?!" In frustration, he grabbed two electronic panels and smashed them together, shattering them both and sending sparks flying everywhere.

"Hi, Ali!"

Alistor jumped. In his wallowing session, he hadn't been really paying attention to his surroundings - a fact he now realized could possibly have spelt his doom if another saiyan or someone from Lord Frieza's army had tracked him here. He turned around to see Ruby, holding a brown paper bag, standing about eight feet away, almost exactly on top of where he had landed. With a jolt, he suddenly realized that the crater was no longer there. Indeed, aside from the clearing and the pile of parts, there was no sign of anything having crashed here. He made a mental note to ask about this later.

"Um, what's going on?"

Alistor glanced around and noticed that he was sitting in a pile of broken metal and wires and had just demolished two perfectly working components for no real reason. "Okay, I know how this looks, but believe it or not, I know what I'm doing. And-" he added after a quick second, "my name is Alistor, not Ali."

Ruby furrowed her eyebrows - or rather, attempted to. It looked exactly like she was doing her best to copy Ozpin's "concentrated" look, but failed in doing so. "But Yang said-"

"Can we not talk about Yang right now? I'm kinda frustrated at the moment and might be slightly inclined to destroy the whole planet, so talking about people and things that make me angry might not be the best idea in the universe."

"Oh! Oh, yeah, okay, sure, fine, no problem, there's nothing wrong with that!"

Alistor blinked. "You realize that you just said 'Yes' six times?" 

Ruby folded her arms and looked away, clearly trying to appear haughty for reasons unknown. "Well, fine then, if you don't want my help, then I won't!"

Alistor blinked once, shrugged, and continued his search for anything that was salvageable.

Ruby waited a whole three seconds before breaking. "Okay, we'll talk about something else. That looks preeeetty broken."

"I can fix it!" Alistor immediately replied. "I was considered a pretty good engineer on my planet. I just need…parts!"

Ruby's interest was piqued, not that it ever took much to do that. "What kinda parts?"

"Well, I'd need parts from a Saiyan Navigational System, a Saiyan Propulsion System, a Saiyan - actually, to sum it up, the easiest thing would be if we found another Saiyan Pod. Then I could take the parts from that pod and use them to fix this one."

Ruby's face molded itself into a confused expression. "But…at that point couldn't you just take the second pod and use-"

Alistor shushed her. "Don't make me think. It's unhealthy. So all I have to do is get another Saiyan Pod to land here, and all will be good!"

Ruby pursed her lips. "Uh, okay then. Oh, Alest- Olist- Olister- actually, that's waaay too hard to say. Can I just call you Ali?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Double pretty please with ten cherries on top and lots of whipped cream?"

Alistor turned to her, a look of total bewilderment on his face. "What the-" He shook his head. "You know what, Ruby? Fine. You might be the only person here who has yet to either question or infuriate me, so fine, you can call me Ali. You and nobody else."

"Yay, I'm special!" she cheered. "Oh, I brought you this."

She handed him the paper bag. Upon opening it, he was assaulted with enormous amounts of good smell - a very peculiar kind of good smell he had never been exposed to before. Curious, he took one of the brown, flat objects out and sniffed it. "What-"

"They're cookies! You know, food?"

He met her gaze evenly. "Ruby, believe it or not, we do have food where I come from."

"Well, then, try it! I made them myself!"

Alistor shrugged internally and dumped the whole bag in his mouth at once. A look of surprise and disgust passed through Ruby's face momentarily. At first, Alistor wondered why. Then he remembered that he was on a different planet with different customs and manners. He'd have to learn-

His face scrunched up. "This is not food," he declared, mouth still full.

Ruby looked offended. "Well, gee, I didn't think it was _that_ bad."

"No," Alistor continued, "This has something…else. What is that? The weird sensation that's happening in my mouth? These things have…have…"

"Flavor?" Ruby offered.

"Is that the thing you taste that is actually good?"

"…Yes."

"Then, yes, that's what they have! Flavor! What an interesting idea."

Ruby blinked. "Oookay. I'm just going to head back now. Um, enjoy the cookies!"

Alistor's tongue rolled around in his mouth, savoring as much of this "flavor" as he could. He nodded.

"Bye, Ali!" Ruby shouted before vanishing into the trees.

Alistor stretched and relished the last bits of the cookies as they all disappeared down his throat. It was hardly a snack, but it would tide him over for now. Well, he thought, back to work.

But no sooner had he turned around than he heard rustling in the trees behind him and a voice called out to him.

"Well, that's finally over with! I thought she'd never leave."

Alistor had sensed a somewhat low power level near him, but had assumed it was one of the Grimm, rather than an actual person. He needed to stop making mistakes like that.

Turning, he saw the newcomer. He was brown-haired, blue-eyed, and every bit as tall as Alistor. He was also smug and overbearing, acting as though his very presence was a rare and valuable commodity. He wore a black suit with various pieces of armor plating over it, most of which showed the symbol of a bird in flight, and wielded a black, hollow, mace-like weapon with a red crystal in the center.

"Okay," Alistor began. "You've just done three things I really would not recommend around me. First, you eavesdropped, second, you eavesdropped, and third, now, pay very close attention, as this is something you could very easily have missed, YOU EAVESDROPPED. And you…you…who are you?"

"My apologies." The young man mockingly bowed to Alistor. "My name is Cardin. Cardin Winchester."

"Well, nevermind, then." Alistor declared. "Maybe if you keep bowing down every time you see me, we might just get along."

Cardin rose. "Oh, I'm sorry, that's just not possible. See, there's just one person I serve in this school, and that's me."

Alistor nodded. "Oh, yes. That's a great viewpoint to have at a school like this. It totally won't get you thrown out at all."

Cardin let out a guffaw. "I think I like you already. You're a new student, right? You're from that place that was destroyed, and now you've been sent here?"

"I'm going to be completely honest and say that that is a very accurate picture of what happened, yes."

Cardin smiled. "You look big enough. Strong enough. What would you say to a little fight tomorrow?"

Instantly, Alistor's curiosity arose. "Oh?" 

"Yeah, in combat training. New kids always get the opportunity to prove themselves. You pick me as a challenger, and we'll just have ourselves a battle."

Alistor saw what this guy was playing at. He clearly thought of himself as a better fighter, and wanted to make the new guy squeal before him - a feat that would normally be doubly easy thanks to Alistor's bandaged areas. He would immediately establish himself as a superior to that fighter, and hold it over him at every possible point. It was a common enough point of character for people like him. He should know - he once had a planet filled with people like that.

But still, knowing the power difference between him and "Cardin" gave an element of humor to the whole thing. Alistor actually stifled a laugh.

"Are you…challenging me to a fight?" 

"No." Cardin sounded annoyed. "I'm asking you to help me sell vacuum cleaners. Of course I'm challenging you to a fight!"

Alistor choked down another laugh. "What if I don't want to fight you?"

Cardin calmly strolled over to the pile of parts that once was Alistor's ship. "You know, when I followed that red girl this far into the forest, my first thought was that she was hiding something here. Turns out I was half-right. She's not hiding something. You are." He flexed his fingers and picked up a piece, which he proceeded to inspect carefully. "This is the 'Saiyan Pod' you were talking about, right? I don't know what it is, but it seems important- important enough that you don't want anyone to know it exists."

He put the piece down and walked back to his original spot. "We don't have to be enemies. If you and me get to fight tomorrow, I can make sure this stays our little secret. Otherwise, I can't be held responsible for what happens. After all, I'm required to report anything suspicious to the headmaster. And if the PA just happens to be on when I do that, well, that's just bad luck." He smiled again. "Now, what do you say?"

Alistor smiled back. "I say it sounds like fun. See you tomorrow."

Cardin put his arm around Alistor's shoulders and squeezed. "Oh, we're going to be great friends, _Ali_." He took his arm off and walked back into the forest, chuckling.

Alistor went back to his former ship. It hadn't actually mattered what Cardin would do if he refused. Actually, the thought of really refusing hadn't even crossed his mind. Nevermind Blake and her bandages; Alistor was a saiyan at heart, and he was itching for a fight, no matter how much of a mismatch it was. Besides, he'd pretty much established the remains of his pod weren't going to be flying through space anytime in the next…forever. What other options did he have? He could plant a beacon - something that would guide a Saiyan Pod to his location, where he could kill the pilot while they were in hypersleep and steal the pod for himself. But even if that did work, he wouldn't be able to leave right away, or anytime soon. At this point, Beacon Academy was his best choice.

If only he didn't have to give up so much of his power to attend.

Suddenly, his eyes caught sight of his semi-functioning propulsion system and an idea struck him. Maybe he wouldn't have to give up so much after all. Immediately, he set to work.

He grinned. Cardin had no idea what he had just gotten himself into.


End file.
